Ian M Rountree

Copywriter, Project Manager, Digital Marketing

The Worst Attitude For Customer Service

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“You can’t please everybody.”

While it is possible to commit no errors and still lose sometimes, believing any variant of “can’t please everybody” instantly ruins any customer interaction you’ll ever have, because you’re leaving room for the possibility of a less than perfect experience.

I say this is the worst for customer service, because it’s not specific to any given industry. No matter who you are, in what locale or business, you have customers. Sometimes it may not feel this way – especially if you’re behind the scenes, doing IT or intra-business support, but the only thing that changes here is the terminology, not the process. Sometimes your boss is your customer; this comes back to the difference between bringing a service to market or a product. Which you’re focused on determines the terminology, but the same remains, if you leave any room for less-than-awesome, you’re leaving room for failure.

I suspect this is an area where just about every business on the planet can use some improvement. And people as well; while we want to participate in our brands more than ever, compromise is a necessity. People are, in general, more tolerant than we give them credit for, if we give them the right, valid information in a timely manner.

It takes a little practice, but consider it this way: When someone says “Thank You,” how do you respond? Do you say “You’re Welcome” because you’re happy to have helped?
Or do you respond “No Problem” and run the risk of diminishing their experience because, in effect, you’re claiming it was worth so little of your time it’s had no effect on your day?

Employing the “Can’t please everybody” defence when you’ve failed may be strict truth, but it also removes the responsibility from your own shoulders. It means you’re unwilling to do the work and find the root of the problem.

And while walking away from the right wasting efforts is sometimes a good idea, the Walk Away Now philosophy is NOT (Say it with me, N O T) intended to be employed without any effort to learn why whatever it is you’re walking away from was a bad idea at the moment anyway.

Do All Your Own Stunts

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When a Hollywood actor does an interview and says, with a straight face, that they trained for months, punished their bodies and learned new skills to bring you the best on-screen experience they possibly can by doing every scene featuring their character in a given movie, how much more do we respect them for it? In an industry when CGI and actor-replacement is so common it’s actually cheaper, in some instances, than featuring a big-name for an extra thirty seconds, doing all of your own stunts is unnecessary and, as such, remarkable.

It’s no different in any other business. How often do we see executives step up and see a fix for a problem from discovery to implementation? How often, when you call technical support, do you speak to the same tech the entire time, without starting to fee like a ping-pong ball, being bounced from department to department?

And if you’re in client support? How often do you, when a client has a problem, work with your client straight through to resolution, without passing it off to a supervisor or manager? How big of a deal do you make out of anything that comes your way? Is this an action you’re willing to take?

We miss a lot of opportunities behind the counter. We miss chances to not be like the other guys, to go above and beyond. Sometimes its as simple as offering free high fives to customers. Other times, it’s ruining our own weekends (because we’ll always have more) for the sake of making an experience for others extraordinary.

I demand you ask of yourself: How often do you do your own stunts? How many times in a given month do you jump off the plane and make an experience remarkable for the people you’re serving?

If you answer is anything less than “every time” you’re just like everyone else. That’s not a bad thing. But I challenge you to do better, because I know you can.